Friday, 21 August 2009

I miss my homeland. Everything is so much more natural there. And I love going out for walks. Because I love the smells. Few days ago I went for a walk in the evening and on the corner of a house estate and a park I could smell something familiar. It was an apple tree.

Funny how smells trigger the flashes of memories. When I was pregnant I suffered really awfully from "morning sickness", which in my case was "all day sickness" for about five months. I couldn't eat anything but sweet things, like biscuits and fruit, I couldn't even look at anything fried or meaty and my hubby's preshave made me sick. The only place I could be that felt reassuring and familiar, was the bathroom. Because they smell the same, basically. A bit wet and soapy.

I miss proper colourful autumn. I don't know whether England has it - because I've spent the last two years indoors, basically. First time because I was too shy/afraid to go out and second time with a small baby. And I would like to see it this year.

I already got inspired a bit and made two shopping bags, for little people. :) I've felt so annoyed with the plastic bags in the shops, because they are so big and scrape the ground when I walk home. I found a solution. I made my own fabric bags. And now I've made a few for selling, too. All upcycled fabrics. Brown used to be a really sun-kissed curtain, which I dyed brown. Stripy and red fabrics used to be bed sheets we never used. I hand-embroidered the "nature's friend" text. It took me about 4 hours. :) Stripy one has a pocket on front and an orange flower brooch, because I felt that the red and purple stripes on the pocket missed something the bag had inside. Both are reversible.

Piccies:

Stripy Shopper

Nature's Friend - Autumn:

Kerli,sincerely

P.S. I swapped the table and the two bookshelves last week. If you could imagine the table being in the corner, full of all kinds of stuff, and the two bookcases next to each other where the table is now, you'll get the picture. ;)

Now we can actually have dinner around the table like a family. Our kitchen is tiny, only one person fits in at a time really!

Monday, 17 August 2009

So I finally figured out what to do with my envelopes. I made little envelopes! I wish I'd figure out what to make of plastic bags. But until then I'll help you to make your own dinky envelopes! :)

1. Start with collecting and preparing old/used/unused envelopes: rip carefully off any windows and cut open all sides. You can tear off the glued sides - it will be easier to draw the envelopes later, but don't rip the top flap off (if it was glued on). I used envelopes that had had bills, junk mail envelopes and the ones they provide with addresses on and everything, only we rarely use them, do we? So give them a new life!

2. Carefully take a small envelope apart and copy its outline onto a stronger paper - old magazine cover works a treat. Or - just download this file: envelope It's a pdf file, so you'll need Acrobat reader.

3. Sort out your envelopes. You'll need A5 sized envelopes with windows or thin envelopes without windows for the template to fit. Naturally, if you have big envelopes without windows, use them, they are the best! :D

4. Lay out your envelope, preferably on some paper, not just on hard table, white side up. Place the template on it, so that the line between top and everything else is lined up with the fold on the envelope. (Sorry for the blurry photo, but I hope you see what I mean.)

5. Draw carefully around the template. Now you should have nice envelope outlines on the paper. Repeat with all your envelopes. Cut them out. You can now recycle the leftover bits, or keep them for other projects - I used some for making tags.

6. Now, the easiest way to fold your dinky envelopes nicely and neatly is to use a ruler. Take the envelope template and place a little thin ruler on one side, edges exactly lined up with the corners. Using your preferred index finger, fold the flap down and slide up and down the ruler. That should leave you with a nice straight fold. Repeat on all sides.

7. Now you'll have something like this:

But these are just guideline folds and you'll have to reinforce them. Preferably on hard surface, fold all the flaps down one by one and slide your finger on the fold. I'm sure you'll know how to do that! :) You'll envelope will look like this:

8. Put some glue on the edges of the bottom flap, about 2/3 of the way. Stick it on top of the side flaps.

9. And there you are - your own little envelope! And since you only glued 2/3 of the sides, you can slide the tip of the top flap under the edge of the bottom flap.

Thanks for looking! If you find any mistakes or a way to make explanations easier, please tell me!

Saturday, 15 August 2009

Sorry for being so quiet latey... I have been busy. With real life and handicrafts, I want to make 2 tutorials, and I have been editing photos today for three hours and listening to Woodstock film. It seems that when I get to this making mode, I can't get out, I somply get more and more ideas and I want to finish them, rather than come to the computer to upload them into my shops.

A little sneak peek: (I have some that aren't photographed yet, and some that are in progress, but should be ready soon.)

Little pencil tube

Triangular pencil case - I am quite proud of it (compared to the first one I made :D)

A few little envelope envelopes - they are all packed and wait for uploading into folksy and etsy. :)

see the time

this is me

I have always loved making things with my hands. I do like mad jewellery, corduroy, colourful things and board games. And recycling. And sometimes I have little animals in my head that need to come out...